


The Stars Rewritten

by sasspan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, i once promised myself that i would never write a 5+1 but this is my sole exception
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 01:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20073967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasspan/pseuds/sasspan
Summary: Five realities that didn't happen and one that did.





	The Stars Rewritten

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted on tumblr (same username), along with some fic notes.

** 5\. **

They took Allura’s bedside vigil in shifts. 

Coran was the one who sat by her for the first few hours, and then Lance for the next few. Romelle came in for a while, the mice perched on her shoulders, then Pidge, followed by Shiro. 

Keith tapped in at three in the morning. Shiro gave him a tired smile and a clap on the shoulder by way of greeting. 

“Chin up, Keith,” he said on his way out. “Hunk’ll come by in around four vargas to take over.”

Keith nodded. The door slid closed, and the room was quiet. 

Slowly, he walked to her bed. Slowly, he sat down next to it. Slowly, he pulled his gaze to Allura’s face. 

It was hard, looking at her, the sallowness of her face, her closed eyes. It was hard, knowing that there had been a chance of her not being here at all. 

What was he supposed to do? He knew that Romelle had sung to her. That Coran had told her old childhood stories. That Pidge had brought in a bouquet of juniberries grown in the hothouse—they were wilting in a vase on the table. 

He thought maybe he should talk to her. Tell her it would be all right. Tell her how she had saved them, all of them. Tell her about Daibazaal and Altea, about Voltron. Tell her he was sorry.

He thought maybe he should hold her hand. 

Hers were lying on top of the sheet, curled into loose fists. They looked so small there; no bracelets, no bayard. He remembered holding them when the two of them were spinning in a void of stars, clutching them like a lifeline. They had been small out there, too. 

Keith reached out—

—and Allura gasped for breath. 

Keith withdrew as though he had been struck. The very next moment he was reaching forward again, helping her sit up as she shuddered and coughed. 

“Keith,” she managed after several minutes, and the relief that cut through him at the sound of her voice was so sharp and hot that he couldn’t quite speak. “Keith,” she said once more. “What happened? Where are we? Is everyone—”

“Allura,” he said, finding the words at last. “Allura. We’re fine, everyone’s fine. We’re all right. We won.”

Her eyes caught his, held him still. She said, wonderingly, “We won?” 

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Allura drooped back onto her pillows, her hair a silver pool beneath her. “We won,” she repeated, almost cautiously, like she was testing the way the words felt on her tongue. “What about Honerva? The other realities?”

“They’re… Honerva disappeared,” he said. “And the other realities, they came back…you restored them.”

“_I_ restored them?”

“Yeah. You saved us.” Keith swallowed. “You saved everybody.” 

And she’d nearly died doing it. 

Allura looked around the room, at the flowers and the get-well-soon cards at her bedside. Pidge’s card, at the front, had a roughly scribbled picture of the Blue Lion under the words _We Love You! _

“Voltron,” she said, “what about Voltron?” 

Keith’s hand clenched at his knee. He did not want to be the one to tell her. 

Regardless, he said, “It’s gone.” 

_“Gone?”_

“It, it disappeared when Honerva did.” The words were wooden and graceless in his mouth; Shiro could’ve said it better, Hunk could’ve said it better. “There just wasn’t—I guess there just wasn’t enough quintessence to bring everything back, and…” 

And that had been the end of it. Voltron swallowed up by that endless white light, the paladins spit back out like watermelon seeds. 

“Oh,” breathed Allura, and crumpled. 

Keith looked away as the tears slipped down her cheeks. He was miserably out of his element now, and all he could think of was the way her face had looked in that strange other dimension, that collective consciousness.

_I know the risks_, she had said. 

The quiet steadiness of her voice. The acceptance. 

The memory hit deep. 

“I’m sorry.” It tumbled out of him before he could stop it. 

She stared at him with wet eyes.

“Allura. I’m sorry,” he said again, and then it was a flood rushing up his throat, so thick he could hardly breathe. _I’m sorry about Voltron. I’m sorry about the Castle. I’m sorry about your father. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry._

He could not bring himself to voice it. So instead Keith laid his open palm next to hers on the bed. 

She did not move for several ticks. And then, Allura placed her hand in his.

.

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**4.**

She didn’t need an escort, not really; the mission was a simple visit to the planet Puig, meant to strengthen diplomatic relations. Guards, she’d argued, would make everyone more on edge; and that couldn’t possibly be conducive to a peaceful alliance. 

But Lotor had insisted repeatedly, and she’d finally agreed to take along a single guard as a precaution.

So he had sent one of his generals, the slight one who always wore a kerchief around his face. Keith. He followed her like her own shadow, silent and unshakeable, as the Puigians led her on a tour of their capital city. 

Occasionally she would catch his gaze. He did not look Galra, not the way she was used to; and she knew, of course, that he was not fully Galran, just like all of Lotor’s generals, but…still. It was unnerving. How quietly he followed her. How the blade flashed at his hip. How dark his eyes were. 

Allura pushed the feelings down, or at least attempted to. She owed the Puigians her full attention; they were potential allies, after all, and she was the leader of the Coalition, a paladin of Voltron. 

So she focused on the tour, on the food and dance and song. She focused so much that she let her guard slip. 

“_Princess!_” shrieked her guide, and Allura, too late, registered the rush of cool air on the back of her neck, the shadow that loomed behind her, blocking the sun. Metal whistled as it cut through the air, and she reached for her bayard, knowing there wasn’t time, knowing— 

A bang, a grunt, a thud. She turned, whip in hand, to see a huge figure slump to the ground, an axe falling from its grip. 

Keith stood behind it. The blade in his hand shimmered indigo. His kerchief had slipped from his face, so she could see the long scar reaching up his cheek. 

He dipped his head, his eyes locked on hers, fathomless. “Princess. Are you all right?”

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**3\. **

“Keith,” murmured the prince’s advisor, the tall one with the broad shoulders. “Maybe we should think about this.”

“We can’t, Shiro,” the prince snapped. “This is something I have to do by myself. A bunch of amateurs from some random planet are just gonna slow us down.”

“_Random_?” Pidge clamored. 

“Who’re you calling _amateurs_?” Lance demanded.

“Settle down, cadets,” said Coran, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. “Perhaps the word ‘amateurs’ has a different nuance here than it does on Earth, eh?”

“Not the way I mean it,” said the prince coldly. He whirled around, his cape sweeping over his shoulder, and began to stride away. 

Allura glanced at everyone else, frozen with indecision (or in Lance’s case, rage) before hurrying after him. “Prince—I mean, your highness—please, just hear us out.”

The prince turned to face her, and she was suddenly taken aback by his proximity. He looked so young, so human. Except for the tapered ears and the violet marks beneath his eyes, he could have been any other cadet at the Garrison. It was difficult to believe he was an alien who had been asleep for ten thousand years. 

“Well?” he said. “Say your piece.” 

Allura swallowed back her surprise. Now wasn’t the time to be tongue-tied; everyone was depending on her. Coran, the other cadets. Her father. She couldn’t let them down. 

“When I found the Blue Lion,” she began, “I…felt something. As if…I was destined to find it. As if my life was leading up to that moment. When I flew it, I could…it was almost like we were one being.” She paused, inhaled deeply. The weightless exhilaration of that first flight had not yet left her veins. “There has to be a reason for this…for all of this. It cannot all be a coincidence. And…the Galra must be stopped. Allow us to join you. Let us to fight by your side.” 

The prince was watching her warily, his shoulders tense. Like he had never been offered help before, and did not know how to accept it. 

“Please,” said Allura. 

Keith let out a breath, and closed his eyes. 

“I hope I don’t regret this,” he said. 

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**2\. **

When the aliens came, there wasn’t any big deal made about it; it was quiet, hush-hush, the whole thing kept under wraps. 

“The Garrison’s worried that telling the world about this would cause mass panic,” Shiro told him. “They figure ignorance is bliss, for the time being.” 

Keith grunted noncommittally. He didn’t really care about Garrison politics, but it was annoying that he didn’t have security clearance to hear this stuff firsthand. 

That changed the following month.

“Me?” he said when Shiro gave him the news. “Why do they want to talk to _me_?” 

“Not them,” Shiro said. “Just her. The princess.” 

“But why?”

“You’ll see,” said Shiro. He smiled at Keith from the seat of his hoverbike. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, cadet.”

“Yeah,” said Keith. But already, he knew he would. He had to; there was no way he couldn’t. Shiro hadn’t said much about what the aliens had done to help him, but Keith had realized: they had fixed Shiro. Healed him, so his strength stopped withering away, so he could stand tall once more. 

It was the sort of debt that could never be repaid. Keith still wanted to try.

He was taken to a conference room in the communications building. The princess was seated at a table inside; she rose when he entered. 

“Keith,” she said, coming forward, holding out a hand. “How wonderful to finally meet you. My name is Allura.”

“Princess,” he said uncertainly. He took her hand, and, for a bizarre moment, wondered if he was meant to kiss it. But no; they shook, and then pulled away. 

“Shall we sit down?” she asked. 

They sat across from each other. The princess had a sheaf of papers before her that she sifted through. “I want to thank you for agreeing to this meeting. I’ve heard…quite a bit about you.”

What, exactly, had she heard about him? He wanted to ask, but found that he had trouble meeting her gaze. There was something about her eyes; they were bluer than the desert sky, unearthly. 

“Before we start, I suppose you have some questions for me,” she said. “I’m more than happy to answer them.”

Keith frowned down at the table. Questions…he had too many to count. “Why Earth?” he asked at last. “Why now?”

“I’m not quite sure myself,” the princess admitted. “I was asleep in my ship for thousands of years without any disturbance. But… for some reason I was awoken, and led here.” From the corner of his eye he saw her fingers flex and relax, grasping. Her voice softened and became almost dreamlike. “It’s almost as if… as if there’s something on this planet that I’m meant to find.” 

The words stirred something in the depths of his chest. _Something I’m meant to find_. He knew that feeling, that feeling of peering out into the night sky, that inexplicable _pull_. Like a voice, calling your name, waiting for an answer. 

His silence seemed to encourage her. “Commander Iverson tells me that you’re one of the best pilots here.” 

Keith was quiet for a moment longer before shrugging. “Sure. Griffin and Rizavi aren’t bad either.” 

“Perhaps. But Shiro tells me that you also have a…tendency of getting into trouble.” 

This surprised him into looking up, and he saw that she was smiling at him, those strange blue eyes dancing. 

He coughed and glanced away. “So what—what exactly did you need me for?”

“Well,” said Princess Allura, “have you ever heard of the legend of Voltron?”

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**1\. **

“I thought I would find you up here.”

Keith tipped his head in her direction. “You gonna report me?”

“Perhaps I should… but I think I’d rather join you,” Allura admitted. She could not see his face, but she thought he might have smiled at that. 

She came up to join him at the edge of the roof. The view from the top of the Garrison really was breathtaking, especially at night; the desert unfurled before them, dimly red-gold, interrupted only by the dark shapes of the plateaus on the horizon. 

She glanced at Keith out of the corner of her eye. He was not looking at the Earth below them, but at the stars above. His brow was furrowed. She knew without asking what he was thinking of. 

“I spoke to that engineer cadet earlier,” she said instead. “Hunk. He told me the signal frequencies that I asked him to track have been getting stronger these past few days.”

“Good,” muttered Keith. “I’ll go back to the caves again this week.” He looked at her. “You’ll come with me?”

“Yes,” said Allura steadily. She had only been to the caves once before, but there was something about that place…

Keith nodded. He turned back to the stars. “Thanks.” They stood together for another minute. “Thanks,” he repeated, suddenly. 

Allura blinked. “For the caves?”

“No. Yes. Not just for…” Keith trailed off, his voice low. “Just. Thanks.” 

It was hard, for both of them. It was hard, without Shiro or her father or Coran to provide a guiding hand. It was hard, knowing that the people they loved most had been flung into the stars, lost somewhere in the cold emptiness of space. 

But at least they had each other. Not for the first time, Allura found her heart soft with gratitude that she did not have to do this alone. 

“We’ll find them,” she whispered to him. A secret to tuck into their hearts, a spark of hope to carry them through this dark. 

“How,” he started, then stopped. Again she knew without his saying what he meant. _How do you know?_, he was asking. _How can you be sure?_

She couldn’t, really. It was not a promise she could make. But a promise that she could make was that whatever happened, they would face it together. 

Allura reached out, and clasped Keith’s hand. For a moment he was still; then, slowly, his fingers curled around hers, rough and warm. 

.

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**0\. **

He saw her once, after. 

He was at a refugee planet with Acxa and Ezor and the rest of the Blade, handing out cans of food and folded blankets, when a flicker of white caught his eye. 

Keith looked up without meaning to, and—

There she was, standing in the crowd. Looking right at him.

Her face. Her eyes. Her smile. Pride and grief and joy and longing. A million things at once. Breaking his heart all over again. 

There was no breeze, but strands of her hair lifted slightly, glinting like pearls in the sunlight. Lighter than petals, lighter than feathers, lighter than air itself. 

When he blinked, she was gone.


End file.
